RHS Tatton Park 2022 - Planting for New Build Homes
It all begins with an idea.
And the idea behind these planted borders was a simple one….
Choose a typical soil type from the North West Region, and show what can be achieved.
The result was four 2.4m x 2.4m “Pocket Plantings” borders, paid for by the RHS and displayed at this years (2022) RHS Tatton Park Flower Show, featured on Granada Reports and filmed for BBCs Gardeners World. I was extremely honoured to be asked to chose the soil type and aspect, design and plant 3 of these borders (see also my blog post about collaboration on this feature).
So, now to reveal my choices, show some images of the plants and describe a little of my approach to designing each of them. Oh, and perhaps the aspect that will be of most interest…the plant list!
Off to a patchy start
The first of three posts.
Ideal for new build gardens, where the soil is generally imported, can be free draining in parts and very boggy in others, and can have patches of ground that have a higher lime content from the inevitable submerged debris left behind as part of the build process.
As well as addressing these tricky conditions, I wanted to show that a new build garden doesn’t have to be a lawn with 3 narrow tidy borders. They can be full and naturalistic and still be super simple to maintain.
Originally I was going to make this border up with the most requested colour palette, Pinks, Whites, Blues and Purples. Then I had a radical rethink. If you are going to show something different, then do it properly.
So I drew the colour palette from the beautiful young Betula multi-stem. Rust shades, cream splatters and a variety of greens form the basic palette and are accentuated by pops of orange, russet, purple and a warm yellow.
Plant List: Free draining, sun or part shade
Betula utilis
Bulbine frutescens 'Avera Sunset Orange'
Echinacea 'Cleopatra'
Erigeron karvinskianus
Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae
Penstemon 'Wedding Day'
Perovskia atriplicifolia
Sedum album
Sedum sexangulare
Plant List: moist but free draining sun or part shade
Betula utilis
Anemanthele lessoniana
Asplenium scolopendrium
Coreopsis rosea ‘American Dream’
Deschampsia cespitosa Tautrager'
Digiplexis 'Firecracker'
Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae
Oenothera lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies'
Penstemon 'Wedding Day'
Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Pompom'
Sagina subulata
Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna'
Sanguisorbia officinalis ‘Tanna’
Plant List: Poorly draining sun or part shade
Betula utilis
Astilbe 'White Gloria'
Astilbe ‘Cappucino’
